10 Inspirational Community Cafes In London

Taking the humble tea, coffee and cake to the next level is the community cafe. Community cafes can give back to their local community not just through the profits raised, but also by supporting people in need, being environmentally aware and making use of unused community spaces. Here’s our list of 10 inspirational community cafes across London who are giving back in more ways than one.

1. Unity Kitchen

Unity Kitchen, Queen Elizabeth Park - via the Unity Kitchen website / Via unitykitchen.co.uk

Not only do they create menus that are a feast of fresh, seasonal produce at affordable prices, Unity Kitchen is committed to benefiting the community and the people with which they work. Every pound of profit goes directly to train and employ people with disabilities in catering and hospitality. They are sustainable in every sense of the word – from their business, to their food and impact on the environment. Run in partnership with The Camden Society, Unity Kitchen runs six self-sustaining social enterprises across London, including three cafes and coffee shops in Queen Elizabeth Park, The Royal Artillery Museum and St Luke's Community Centre.

2. FoodCycle Pie in the Sky

A volunteer in action at FoodCycle Pie in the Sky / Via foodcycle.org.uk

We throw away over seven million tonnes of household food waste every year and over 50% of that waste could have been used. FoodCycle take a surplus of over 1000kg of food a week for Pie in the Sky, a community café in Browley-by-Bow, serving up healthy, tasty and affordable food that would have ended up as waste. Not only do they promote healthy eating, they also support volunteers to develop skills and confidence for careers in the hospitality or catering industry. Their volunteers include people out of employment or education, young ex-offenders and the long term unemployed.

3. LIFT Café

LIFT Cafe via Community Diner / Via communitydiner.co.uk

LIFT, Islington Council's venue for young people interested in living healthy lives includes a 30-station gym, dance studio, professional kitchen, rooftop terrace, a secret garden and a community cafe. Community Diner, who manage LIFT Cafe, are a not-for-profit social enterprise that run cafes across London. They provide training, qualifications and experience with a focus on those with learning difficulties and disabilities. LIFT has become a hub for the young people of Islington - not only a place to hang out, but also the opportunity to get advice and support when they need it.

4. Merci Marie

Merci Marie / Via Facebook: Merci-Marie

Merci Marie is a café at the heart of Bootstrap Company, a social enterprise in Dalston that believes in the power of micro-enterprises in the regeneration of communities. Serving up old favourites with a new delicatessen feel, Marie Gonfond is bringing the flavours of her Provencal heritage to the co-working spaces, micro-enterprises, projects and cultural spaces of Bootstrap Company and the people of Dalston. Friday nights see the café transformed into ‘Sweet Friday’ a pop-up dining experience. Once you’ve had your fill of French-inspired fare, you can head upstairs for drinks and a spectacular view on the Dalston Roof Park.

5. NANA Café

NANA Café / Via wearenana.com

NANA Café in Hackney is a combination of two community needs – over 65s who have the time and want to help out in their local community, and a community of people looking for a reasonably priced café. Enter the nanas – cooking the food of your childhood or serving the customers as part of a thriving community enterprise. Volunteer NANAs are provided with free lunch and snacks, and becoming part of the NANA partnership after three months, with a percentage of the profits distributed to the partners depending on the number of shifts worked. Dippy egg and soldiers, anyone?

6. The Skylight Café

The Skylight Café / Via @SkylightCafeLDN

The Skylight Café in Spitalfields pride themselves on the delicious, healthy food produced in an ethical and sustainable way - and on the people who help make it. Since 2004, Crisis, the national charity for homelessness, has been running a training program for ex-offenders and homeless people that aims to get them back into work with qualifications and experience in catering through the Switchback programme. The café has just undergone a refurbishment, and is back serving up delicious food and coffee better than before.

7. The Hill Station Café

The Hill Station Cafe via Facebook / Via Facebook: thehillstation

It took a whole community effort to transform a derelict space under the Telegraph Hill Centre into the Hill Station Community Café – a thriving café that employs staff under the London Living Wage and grows community through ethical, sustainable and replicable programmes to build community cohesion. The local people, with help from several grants, became investors in 'Bold Backer' grants of £200 and held a variety of fundraising events and promotions to reach a target of £50,000. From laying the flooring, decorating and even the name, this was the community's café from the start. It is now a hive of activity with community kitchen events, pop up restaurants and exhibitions.

8. Paper & Cup

Paper and Cup / Via sct.org.uk

While the customers wile their time over a cup of Union Hand-Roasted coffee and watch the hip and trendy pass by on the streets of Shoreditch, this 'coffee-bookshop' café is giving people in recovery from addiction and long-term unemployment real work experience and training in a safe and nurturing environment. Founded by the Spitalfields Crypt Trust in 2012, Paper and Cup is in the business of helping people to change their lives for the better, with any profit raised being invested back into the people who need it most.

9. Bonnington Café

The Bonnington Café / Via thisisyourkingdom.co.uk

Tucked in among the community gardens of Bonnington Square in Vauxhall, is the Bonnington Café. It started as a squat cafe providing the locals with a good feed in the 80s and is now something of an institution, running as collective of member cooks, who also contribute to the day-to-day tasks. This results in a widely varied menu, everything from Japanese to French, Italian...even Medieval style cooking, with a vegetarian and vegan focus and affordable pricing. You book directly with the cook of the night, and it's at their discretion if you can attend.

10. The Hornbeam Café

The Hornbeam Café / Via hornbeam.org.uk

The Hornbeam is a community space that is open to projects that encourage local people to take action. One of their current priorities is food, which has resulted in a community café - The Hornbeam Café in Walthamstow. A true hub for the community, they use organic and fairly traded produce to create a vegan menu from their local partnership with chef collective Norman Loves, get home baked bread from the Hornbeam Bakers Collective, provide midweek food boxes and a Saturday Market in partnership with Organiclea Community Growers in East Anglia. The café also hosts a wealth of local meetings and events, from Italian classes to a cycling campaign - it's a true community collective.

Locality offers resources and advice around the creation of community-led cafes, restaurants and pubs – from help using the Community Rights and Asset Transfers, to business planning and training via our Consultancy services.